Canada 3000 To Fill Demand Niche

<B>Canada 3000 To Fill Demand Niche</B>

By Neelam Mathews

<I>New Delhi - </I>The announcement of scheduled air services by Canada 3000 beginning in October is good news for travel buyers, as there is already a shortfall of 1 million seats into India--and a liberalized economy indicates that business travel will continue to grow in the coming years.

The scheduled service license obtained by Canada 3000 for three weekly flights will take just 12 hours from Toronto to Delhi. Canada 3000 will fly its two Airbus A340 aircraft, leased from Singapore Airlines, over the North Pole following an agreement with the Russians that involves an upgrade of radar in exchange for flying rights. The one flight to Mumbai and two flights to New Delhi from Toronto and Vancouver will begin the first week of October.

Canada 3000 president Angus Kinnear said, "We are delighted to have won this new designation to serve India. Canada 3000 looks forward to expanding ties with India and playing its part in helping to develop a closer relationship between the two countries. We have a unique product that we expect will sell well for the market heading toward North America."

Canada 3000 recently announced it had contracted nine 142-seat Airbus A319 aircraft to be used on Canadian domestic and transborder services. "The addition of this new aircraft fleet will allow Canada 3000 to increase frequency to destinations it currently serves in the Canadian domestic market and in markets connecting Canada with the United States," Kinnear said. "Our increased frequencies to the U.S. market will offer Indian businessmen good connections to U.S. destinations," which also is positive news for Indian IT professionals.

During a time when IT workers continue to be hot commodities the world over, Canada, too, is expecting to face a shortfall in skilled professionals. As India's third largest foreign investor, Canada is expecting to tap the growing business traffic from the software sector market.

Dewang Mehta, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, said that more than 185 Fortune 500 companies outsourced their software requirements to India in 1999-2000. And according to the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, the computer software sector in India achieved record-high growth in 1999 of 66 percent, or $3.01 billion, compared with $1.81 billion in 1998. During 2000-2001, the sector is expected to grow to $6.5 billion.

Kinnear said his airline already has entered into an interline alliance with an Indian private domestic carrier, though the name of that carrier will be announced "at a later stage," he said. Kinnear said an alliance with a reliable Indian partner would help Indians from major cities throughout the sub-continent to connect with Canada 3000 flights.

Carlson Wagonlit India CEO Vijay Chadha said it made better flying sense for business travelers to have regular frequencies and alliance partners. "The short flying time, however, will prove a real bonus.